Wait till all of the above are called anti Semitic. Those new housing are illegal. they are built on land not owned by the Israeli government. Oh Israel does not abide by international laws unless it suits her. Nothing new here. Peace is disappearing fast.

IMO the Israeli's and the Jordanians need to set the West Bank aside for the Palestinians. The Trans-Jordan was their natural home anyway and it seems fit they should be given that land for their own. Both the Israeli's and Jordanians should do everything they can to help them settle there and set up. As long as Hamas does not come along with them the Jordanians and Israeli's should do everything they can to help.
Israel had an opportunity to give that land back years ago and for one reason or another failed to do it. IMO Now is the time to do so. The settlers will have to decide whether to stay on (under Palestinian rule) or move, they knew when they located there that there was always risk. I hope there is enough of a moderate voice in the new coalition to accomplish this.

AND in the event such a miracle should happen---------I hope for the sake of the everyday Palestinian people that----just for once ------they will not elect terrorists to represent them!
Hamas needs to move to Iran where they will feel at home.

Quoting Raffik (Reply 3):Building this on occupied land will no doubt lead to more resentment and anger from the Palestinians. Why are the Israelis building there?? It's illegal.

And any response from the Palesitnians will be well-deserved.

Quoting SOBHI51 (Reply 5):Wait till all of the above are called anti Semitic. Those new housing are illegal. they are built on land not owned by the Israeli government. Oh Israel does not abide by international laws unless it suits her. Nothing new here. Peace is disappearing fast.

I don't see how anyone could call the criticisms here anti-semitic. But i know what you are saying. I support Israel's right to exist and defend itself. But this to me is a clear sign that there are some Israelis who in fact do not desire peace.

It is amazing, it is never ending from both sides. Someone is always stirring the pot. Israel and the opposing sides do it constantly. Obama is in, let us stir it up. Like a merry-go-round, around and around we go.

Quoting SOBHI51 (Reply 9):But peace needs both sides, and at this moment my hopes are not high.

I honestly had some hope, until this plan (or one like it) was mentioned a while ago. And then came the election. The implications of a Likud win was clear to all. Still, that's pretty much what happened. Yeah, I have no hope either. Can't have peace unless both sides want it. And actions speak louder than words.

Quoting SOBHI51 (Reply 5):Wait till all of the above are called anti Semitic.

All of the above are anti-semitic. And furthermore, the OP is a Norwegian, and thus, as I believe we established in another thread, is a member of a barbaric and backward society.

Remember, any and all criticisms of Israel and/or Israeli policy is anti-semitic. This is because there was a Holocaust againt the Jews 70 years ago. Thus, the Jews can do no wrong. By the transitive argument, nor can Israel.

You are all a bunch of Nazis. And you all hate bunny rabbits and like to club baby seals for fun.

(And no, this post isn't serious. However, the following is: I am disgusted with Israel and I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't time for the UN to actually start taking military action against Israel to force them to stop this nonsense).

The last few months' happenings in Israel/Palestine have been disconcerting to say the least. First Israel takes advantage of a lame duck presidency in the US in order to unleash a war and destroy Gaza using US weapons, cause unprecedented death and destruction, then withdraw and leave the rest of the world to pay to reconstruct what the they flattened - all during the midst of a financial crisis.

And now after all that they are going to push ahead with constructing settlements on occupied land - in an attempt to thwart any future peace agreement. Who wants to believe that Israel has any interest in peace now?

I am first and foremost against my taxes (American) going to Israel and I question the validity of creating Israel at the end of WW2 in Palestine.

However, I actually think the Israelis are smart to do this. Yes, it will piss off the Palestinians, but world attention is still focused on their role as victims in the Gaza mess, so these new settlements will probably get less attention. Although the world had no problem displacing 10s of 1000s Palestinains for the new Israelis in the 1940s, the more Israelis who live in the West Bank the greater Israel's argument that it should be under Israel's control.

This crap never stops. I'm also fairly disgusted with Israel at the moment, basically for the operations in Gaza that happened not too long ago and the huge amounts of death that occurred on the Palestinian side vs. Israeli. 13 deaths from Israel and 1300 for Gaza. Something like that. And 8 of the 13 were combat soldiers from Israel.

No wonder their airliners have to be guarded by tanks on the runways. These settlements are just a slap in the face after these people just buried their children.

You know, this sort of reminds me of Nazi Germany. I mean, didn't the Nazi's kill millions of Jews all throughout Germany and Eastern Europe then take their homes and possessions and just moved right in like the place was a furnished apartment ready to move in?

-or-

They made the jews move into ghettos while the non-jews lived in their houses. History repeats itself again. While not on the grand scale as the Nazi's, it's just too eerily similar.

Also, I have this question, what, if anything, strategically does Israel really mean to the rest of the world anymore? We are friends with everyone around them practically except Iran. We actually have much more to gain from Iran than Israel. Israel acts like a petulant child of the western world who wants a constant handout even when she's bad. It's like the Veruca Salt of states IMHO.

Quoting DocLightning (Reply 12): I am disgusted with Israel and I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't time for the UN to actually start taking military action against Israel to force them to stop this nonsense).

Why should Israel listen to the UN? The UN has never done anything for the benefit of Israelis (okay, I'll give you 1948). Honestly, Israel should pull out of the UN. They are the only country guaranteed of never holding a seat on the security council, and no matter what Israel does, they are wrong. Israel could be attacked with a nuclear bomb. They retaliate in kind, and they are the bad guys Also, the UN has no legal standing. They are a non governmental organization, so they cannot do anything to Israel. Maybe you'll suggest imposing sanctions. Yeeeeeeah...that'll work.....Israel and the US do a lot of business, and just like is the case with Israel, the UN couldn't do squat to anyone violating sanctions.

Quoting Cadet985 (Reply 20):Why should Israel listen to the UN? The UN has never done anything for the benefit of Israelis (okay, I'll give you 1948). Honestly, Israel should pull out of the UN. They are the only country guaranteed of never holding a seat on the security council, and no matter what Israel does, they are wrong. Israel could be attacked with a nuclear bomb. They retaliate in kind, and they are the bad guys Also, the UN has no legal standing. They are a non governmental organization, so they cannot do anything to Israel. Maybe you'll suggest imposing sanctions. Yeeeeeeah...that'll work.....Israel and the US do a lot of business, and just like is the case with Israel, the UN couldn't do squat to anyone violating sanctions.

With this logic, then why will Iran stop it's nuclear programs, why did Syria pull out of Lebanon, why did the UN recognize Israel? You need to live in this big world. If Israel withdraw from the UN she will be very isolated from the rest of the world. Politics is not a kids game. Good enough? If and i say if ever there were sanctions against Israel the USA should and i repeat should abide with those sanctions.

Quoting SOBHI51 (Reply 18):Israel policy is to build new housings so they could absorb more immigrants. This way they will make sure they are never a minority. They are smart.

I'm not sure what the net immigrant rate is into Israel these days. I would think that all the Jews who want to live in Israel are probably already there. As tensions mount in that part of the world, Israel will look less and less attractive as a place to immigrate to. Furthermore, there seems to be a lot of Israelis who have left Israel to live elsewhere. We have quite a few in Los Angeles. So I am doubtful that net Jewish immigration would be able to change the current demographic trends in the area.

Perhaps someone else out there could shed some light on this question.

Quoting Cadet985 (Reply 20):Israel should pull out of the UN. They are the only country guaranteed of never holding a seat on the security council, and no matter what Israel does, they are wrong. Israel could be attacked with a nuclear bomb. They retaliate in kind, and they are the bad guys Also, the UN has no legal standing. They are a non governmental

You are exactly right. Israel will ALWAYS be held to a different standard than any other country in the world JUST because she is Jewish.

Quoting Cairo (Reply 15):Although the world had no problem displacing 10s of 1000s Palestinains for the new Israelis in the 1940s

The British offered the Palestinians a better piece of land than the Jews got, but the Palestinians refused it because the rest of the Arab world convinced them that they "would push all the Jews into the sea" and all the land would be available for the Arabs.

Anti-semitism is not a joke. Only anti-semites would try to make a joke out of it. Some of the last posts on this thread wreak of anti-semitism. When hatred of Jewish people shadows the ability to be objective in a political discussion than clearly there is a problem.
And, news flash, self-hating Jews can also be anti-semites.
Remember that if you hate ------there is someone else who hates you for much the same reasons.

I am idealistic enough to hope that peaceful solutions will be found so that all involved can co-exist.

I wasn't joking. I'm not anti-semitic either. But, it is eerily similar to me at least of what the Nazi's did to the Jews. I do not hate Jews or Muslims, I have many Jewish friends and I know the Holocaust is not a joke and it's very sad indeed. But the hatred has to stop and you'd think the Israelis, being direct objects of hatred not too long ago would have strayed from that path in all forms of life, including politics and war.

UAL

25 Swissy
: I would call that the post of the day....... and I agree with you Cheerios,

26 Windy95
: How about your taxes going to any country? Hillary Promised the Palestinians $900 million yesterday. At this point and time we need to stop all outfl